


Kat Finds Love

by space_buns_arsinoe



Series: Another World ~ Holiday Special 2020 [3]
Category: Three Dark Crowns Series - Kendare Blake
Genre: F/M, I just want Kat to have love, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:14:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28442238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/space_buns_arsinoe/pseuds/space_buns_arsinoe
Summary: Queen Katharine of Fennbirn deserves to have love, even if I have to invent it
Relationships: Queen Katharine/Original Male Character
Series: Another World ~ Holiday Special 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2040922
Kudos: 1





	Kat Finds Love

**Author's Note:**

> Day Three of my Holiday Special (2020) - Another World

The first time she met Xavier Harcress, they were a little bit drunk.

It had been at a gala the governor had thrown and Kat had been dragged along with her sisters so they could all “branch out.” Xavier had been hanging around Billy chatting when they had entered. Kat knew very little about him but what she did know is that he was just about the most attractive man she had ever seen. Tall and strong with warm strawberry blonde hair and eyes so blue they could have been a clear sky.

She had seen him and Arsinoe in the middle of some intense debate and had come over, slumping against Arsinoe’s side, not that her older sister noticed, not even breaking conversation to swing her arm around Kat.

But Xavier paused, reaching a hand out to her to introduce himself. His voice was smooth and warm and filled her with butterflies and Arsinoe caught the blush of her ears. She looked between them before standing and passing Kat her champagne.

“Xavier, keep my sister entertained, my boyfriend owes me a couple of dances,” Arsinoe says. Xavier stutters an affirmative and then Arsinoe is gone, the hem of her emerald green skirt brushing against Kat’s knees when she walks past.

“So, Xavier, how do you know Arsinoe?” She asks, unsure of what else to say. Xavier smiles slightly.

“I go to university with Billy. And you are of course Arsinoe’s sister. She talks a lot about you two,” Kat smiles, shooting a fond look at where her sister was dancing. “May I ask you something?” Kat braces for something terrible. A comment on the fading tattoos on her forehead or about her infamous time on the throne of Fennbirn, “Does Arsinoe talk about Billy to you as much as Billy talks about Arsinoe to me?” He asks, an easygoing smile on his face. Kat feels relief course through her body as the question makes her laugh.

“Oh, goddess, yes. They are the worst couple ever,” Kat exclaims and Xavier laughs.

“Right? Billy is a terrible drinking buddy because all he does is talk about her,” he explains and Kat giggles.

“Oh, if you don’t enjoy that then you should never ask Arsinoe about their chickens-“

“and how Billy and Arsinoe worked on the coop together!” Xavier finishes excitedly and then they’re laughing. Suddenly he stood up and offered her a hand.

“Would you like to dance with me, Katharine?” Kat took his hand and tried not to blush at the sparks that shot up her arm.

~

If anyone had asked, she had not been writing Xavier since he had gone back to university in the next city over. The only person who knew was Jane because she was the only one who could keep a secret and respected that Kat wasn’t ready to talk about it. But every time she received a letter from Xavier her heart did a weird fluttery thing she didn’t understand but she really liked so she kept writing back.

It wasn’t even interesting stuff, either. It was mostly dumb things about the weather or his cooking or her sunflowers or how dumb they thought the newest music genres were, even as he promised to take her to a music festival the next time they saw each other. Kat was concerned she was jumping in like a fool but her innocuous snooping about it to Arsinoe had reassured her that maybe it wasn’t stupid to deny herself something that made her feel good. Her sister was always a good example on how to be happy, even if it was a little crazy.

So when the spring holidays rolled around, Kat hopped onto a train to meet Xavier at a music festival. When they meet at the station, he smiles wide and picks her off the ground when he hugs her. She blushes when he smiles at her.

“Shall we go, m’lady?” He asks and she laughs, looping her arm through his offered one anyway.

The music was loud and bouncy and Kat bopped along as they got food, before a pit grew in her stomach at the thought of going into the crowd, the thought of all those hands on her brewing a sense of what Arsinoe had called ‘anxiety’. But Xavier didn’t even go in that direction, instead spreading a picnic blanket out on a hill from which they could clearly see the stage without having to fight through a crowd.

“If you want to go in, just let me know but I haven’t seen you ever particularly enjoy large crowds like that,” he explained and she smiled. It wasn’t often that she didn’t feel patronised by those comments, but she could tell that it was a genuine kind thought on his part. She holds his hand and they listen to the music in the field together.

She even kisses his cheek when she leaves, balancing high on her tiptoes.

She doesn’t tell her sisters where she’s been all day but Arsinoe’s smirk tells Kat that she may already know.

~

He had sent her flowers in their weekly correspondence after that, and a proposal to officially court her. It wasn’t the first time she had been courted, of course, she was a queen of Fennbirn, but it was the first time that it had felt real, as though someone saw her and wanted to know her. Not the crown on her head (literal or figurative) or the sisters she would kill, but all of her, her love of animals and her sisters and the way she danced when she felt like no one was judging. She had sent back a letter agreeing to his proposal if he could get her sisters’ approval.

Through some correspondence she is not privy to, he does.

Their routine doesn’t change. She is still an apprentice for a seamstress and he is still in university far enough away that it is difficult to coordinate, but their letters are sweeter, more in depth. Kat cares about what Xavier thinks and says and his response to her thoughts is always honest without being rude or dismissive.

She gets the feeling Arsinoe and Mirabella are beginning to find the letters so they make up a code the next time they see each, when he meets her at the train station and hugs her with such joyous gusto, she is lifted off her feet. She felt weightless and giggly when he kisses her cheek, his arms warm around her.

(They’re probably breaking, like, six Mainland rules of propriety, but with his eyes as bright as they are, Kat actually can’t give two shits).

~

She doesn’t tell anyone they’re moving in together until they do it. Arsinoe and Mirabella are surprised but they bring champagne to the tiny apartment anyway, both levelling very obvious protective older sibling glares at Xavier as he leaves for his internship with a kiss on her cheek. He doesn’t turn and run and that seems to be enough for her sisters.

She finishes her apprenticeship and begins working. Xavier transfers from an internship to a job, working in trading and international business. They cook dinner together every night and eat by the fire. She sews while he irons and he reads while she tends to the flowers in their window box.

The first time they come together, it is close to her birthday and she could only see with the soft moonlight on his skin and feel the way he held her close, like she was a particularly rare treasure. She loved him more than anything.

~

She didn’t even remember most of her wedding, the day too busy to truly catch everything. She knows her eldest nephew had been being the cutest devil and that Mirabella cried enough that the makeup artist refused to redo her mascara for the fourth time.

She knows Xavier looked at her in a way no one else ever had. He didn’t care about the tattoos or the nightmares or that to a society obsessed with women who could have children, she wasn’t worth much. He said his vows and she said hers and both of them meant what they said.

They didn’t have children, didn’t need them. They babysat for their siblings enough. They had each other and their friends and family and that was all they needed as the grew old together

**Author's Note:**

> Come listen to me scream into the void on my tumblr: @space-buns-arsinoe


End file.
